ABSTRACT
The two previous chapters examined the development of Dracula tourism in Romania from the 1960s until 1989. At this time Romania was a socialist state (which, by the late 1980s, had given way to an extreme form of totalitarian dictatorship) and this political context was a major constraint on the nature and form of Dracula tourism. Nicolae Ceauşescu’s regime came to a bloody end during the ‘revolution’ of December 1989, which culminated in the capture and execution of the dictator and his wife. Following these events, Romania turned its back on state socialism and committed itself – erratically – to new forms of political and economic development based on Western European models.
